Fun and Fancy Free
Fun and Fancy Free is a 1947 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures on September 27, 1947. It was one of the "package films" (feature-length compilations of shorter segments) that the studio produced in the 1940s. It is the ninth animated feature in the Disney Animated Canon, and the fourth package film by Disney. The Mickey and the Beanstalk portion of the film was the last time Walt Disney voiced Mickey Mouse, as he was too busy working on other projects to continue voicing the famous character in addition to being an open smoker and it hurt his lungs. Disney replaced himself with sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald. Plot This film features two segments: *''Bongo'': The story of a circus bear cub, who runs away from the circus to the wild and the adventures there that follow. This was based on an original story by Sinclair Lewis. *''Mickey and the Beanstalk'': A moralized adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as peasants who discover temperamental Willie the Giant's castle in the sky through the use of some magic beans. Jiminy Cricket of Pinocchio first appears inside a large house, exploring it and singing "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow" (originally written for Pinocchio), until he happens upon a record player and some records, and sets it up to play the story of "Bongo", as told by Dinah Shore (however, in the re-release of Bongo, Jiminy Cricket narrates the story himself). In the second featurette, the story of "Mickey and the Beanstalk" is narrated by Edgar Bergen in live-action sequences, who, with the help of his ventriloquist's puppets Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, tells the tale to child actress Luana Patten at her birthday party. The story begins in a prosperous land called Happy Valley, which is a lush, green valley, complete with fertile farmlands and babbling brooks. Happy Valley's prosperity is the result of the magic of the voice of a beautiful golden harp, who sings daily to keep Happy Valley prosperous and happy due to the magic spell cast by her voice. The harp is kept in a large, majestic castle overlooking Happy Valley, where she sings daily from her balcony, much to the delight of the residents of Happy Valley. One day, however, a dark shadow is cast over Happy Valley and thunder and lightning rip across the sky as the shadow descends upon the harp's balcony and absconds with her, leaving signs of the theft in its wake. Without the harp's magical voice to keep prosperity over the land, Happy Valley soon descends into famine and drought, turning the once beautiful valley into a gruesome wasteland as crops turn to dust and are swallowed by the earth and the brooks dry up. In the midst of this terrible famine, viewers are introduced to three peasants (Mickey, Donald, and Goofy) who are suffering greatly due to starvation, with only a small loaf of bread and a single bean to share amongst themselves. As Mickey cuts their daily rations and serves them, the long-suffering Donald temporarily loses his composure and begins to savagely eat anything within his reach, including dishes and eating utensils, causing Mickey and Goofy to have to restrain him. After he temporarily calms down, Donald sights the group's lone cow outside and an axe on the wall, formulating a plot to kill the cow so as to satisfy his hunger. When it becomes apparent to the others what he is about to do, Mickey and Goofy leap to once again restrain the delirious Donald. Mickey decides to sell the cow to feed them all, and Goofy and Donald dream of magnificent feasts they can purchase with the money they receive from the sale of the cow that night. However, when Mickey returns, he reveals he traded the cow for a set of magic beans, which when planted beneath the light of a full moon are said to bring good fortune to the planters. Donald, enraged at what he sees as a swindle and seeing he was not going to have anything to eat at that moment, grabs the beans and flings them across the floor, causing them to fall through a small hole in the floor. After the trio retires for the night, a great beanstalk sprouts from the hole as the full moon shines on it, and it grows at an exponential rate, lifting the trio high into the night sky and into a strange new place as they sleep. The next morning, the trio sights a great castle in a land above the clouds where everything is abnormally large in comparison to themselves. As they infiltrate the castle, they enter a large banquet hall where they see a giant-sized feast and begin to satisfy their tortured stomachs. After a while, the trio's actions are overheard by none other than the magic harp stolen from Happy Valley herself, locked away in a large chest. The harp explains her disappearance as a result of her being stolen from her castle by a wicked giant named Willie, who loved the harp's voice and wished to take her for his own entertainment. Shortly after this, the giant known as Willie makes his entrance, absent-mindedly showing off his magical powers of transfiguration as he begins to eat some of the food, upon which he discovers Mickey. Mickey sights a nearby giant flyswatter and cleverly asks the intrigued giant to demonstrate his power by transforming himself into a housefly. As he thinks this is about to work, Mickey signals his compatriots to come help him raise the flyswatter and swat the giant-fly, only to turn around and see Willie has turned himself into a pink bunny instead, thinking it a better demonstration. When he sees the trio holding the flyswatter, he realizes their intentions and captures them, removing the harp from her chest and imprisoning the peasants inside. However, Mickey is able to slip away before Willie locks the other two in the chest and puts the key to his right vest pocket. The harp then lulls Willie to sleep with her magic voice as Mickey attempts to retrieve the key and rescue his friends. He is nearly discovered when he accidentally opens a box of snuff inside the giant's pocket, causing him to sneeze and the giant to awaken. Mickey is able to slip out of the pocket with the key however, causing Willie to think the disturbance was just a nightmare before drifting back to sleep. After several close calls, Mickey succeeds in getting the key back to the chest and frees his friends. The trio then conspires to escape back to Happy Valley with the harp by means of the beanstalk. As Donald and Goofy transport the harp, Mickey attempts to tie Willie's shoestrings together as an insurance policy in case Willie wakes up, but ends up waking him up as a result by accident. Thus begins a wild chase, with Willie in hot pursuit of Mickey as Donald and Goofy take the harp back down the beanstalk. At the bottom, the trio set to felling the beanstalk with a large saw, causing the giant plant to topple and causing Willie to fall to his supposed doom. The trio return the harp to her rightful place in her castle, restoring Happy Valley to its former glory. At the end of the story, Edgar Bergen comforts a sobbing Mortimer Snerd, who was mourning for Willie. Just as Bergen says that Willie is a fictional character and not real, Willie himself appears, alive and well, tearing the roof off Bergen's house. Willie inquires about Mickey's whereabouts, but Bergen faints in shock while Mortimer tells Willie goodnight. The scene closes with Willie searching for Mickey in Hollywood, while placing the Brown Derby restaurant on his head like a hat. Category:Movie